Arsenal 0 – 0 Sporting, which means Arsenal have effectively qualified into the knock-out stages of Europa League if the fixture in Ukraine proceeds as it is and obviously get the win against Quarabag, we aren’t going forward as group leaders right now and we got some work to be done in the following couple of group stage fixtures – though it is a disappointing result especially after massive expectations after two bitter games against Crystal Palace and Liverpool.
But now we turn all the attention to facing Wolverhampton Wanderers at the Emirates on Sunday.
Talking about Wolves – they are very stubborn defensively, though they go into slump phases at times but if you don’t score goals against them and let them get some space, THEY WILL PUNISH YOU. That is what happened against Manchester City and recently against Tottenham last week.
Watching out our games against Liverpool and Sporting, yes we were unlucky to not get the ball into the net on several occasions but if that continues against Wolves on Sunday.. It may come back and bite us.
But lets go deeper into The Wolverhampton Wanderers: Many were surprised when Nuno Espirito Santo joined Wolves last season but with the links of Super agent Jeorge Mendes and having somebody at helm who knows and understands Mendes very well – you could see why Nuno took the job. He brought exclusive Portuguese talents with him in Ruben Neves, Diego Jota, Acosta.. These guys came in and took Championship by storm and are now climbing up a level into the Premier League.
In fact looking at the likes Wolverhampton and Fulham when they were promoted to the Premier League ahead of this season they looked really promising. Though Fulham have found nothing less than vulnerability in the defense but on the other hand Wolves have found their feet firm in the Premier League.
READ: Key Clash: Bellerin vs Doherty | Arsenal vs Wolves
When you look at Wolves – they started the season really well, winning games one – nil, two – nil but have not been involved in high scoring games (which you would generally expect against Arsenal). Though they have started to drop points recently with losing to Watford at home followed by loss away to Brighton and then their latest bow against Tottenham Hotspur.
Nuno’s side did show some character coming back after trailing by couple of goals and they may have actually took three points just for some missing chances and maybe tired legs played their part towards the end of the game.
What I am trying to tell is – Arsenal will come up against a strong Wolves side and I think it will turn out to be an interesting one.
Talking about Arsenal, its necessary for us to keep the momentum going. Draw against Sporting Lisbon brings Arsenal’s unbeaten run to fifteen matches and Unai Emery wilk be grinding down with his squad to return to winning ways against Wolverhampton Wanderers at the Emirates, stretching out the unbeaten run to sixteen games as well – going into the international break.
I am expecting Arsenal to start the game with the flare as they did against Liverpool last week. Yes, we have struggled to handle the game in the first half as we would like to – but I think that won’t be the case this Sunday.
Plus the way we defended against Liverpool, we didn’t really gave them free space to create chances. In fact, I was impressed with the way Arsenal defended against Liverpool. We know the quality that Liverpool possesses upfront and how deadly the trio of Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino can be. But Arsenal didn’t gave them space to be themselves, the James Milner goal was unfortunate but other than that we looked better.
Now in Wolves, we aren’t facing a side as deadly as Liverpool upfront and at the same time we can create more spaces offensively in bid to get some on the scoresheets.
I am pretty confident we are coming out with three points.
TEAM NEWS
Arsenal come into the fixture, losing Danny Welbeck for what looks to be a long-term injury. Perhaps, I fear, It could have been Danny Welbeck’s final bow in Arsenal’s jersey being set to leave in the summer
The duo of Nacho Monreal and Sokratis Papastathopoulos took part in full training ahead of match against Sporting. Sokratis was involved on Thursday and Nacho is expected to be back in contention for the weekend.
READ: Key Clash: Bernd Leno vs Rui Patricio | Arsenal vs Wolves
Talking about other long term absentees – Laurent Koscielny has returned back to full training though Arsenal are dealing with his return calmly and will probably be in contention after the International break. Konstantinos Mavropanos is expected to return into full training in couple of weeks as well.
Wolves, earlier this season, set a Premier League record by naming same lineup for eight matches in the running at the beginning of the campaign, though Nuno is forced to rethink after losing some points in the line.
Wolves don’t face much of an injury issue with only Diego Jota the absentee for Arsenal’s clash.
PROBABLE ELEVEN
Arsenal XI: Leno; Bellerin, Mustafi, Holding, Monreal; Torreira, Xhaka, Mkhitaryan, Ozil, Aubameyang; Lacazette
Wolves XI: Rui Patricio; Bennett, Coady, Boly; Doherty, Moutinho, Neves, Jonny; Costa, Jimenez, Cavaleiro
